Click & Clack Talk Cars: It can get complex nowadays under hood

Dear Tom and Ray: I am about to buy a car. I've been advised to buy a new or newer car so as to avoid breakdowns, but I'm running into one big problem: Everything on the market is computerized. I'd like to be able to look under my hood and actually know what is going on. With only one auto-shop class, I'm hardly an expert, but I'd like to learn. Are there any new or newer cars out there that are simple — cars that I could actually work on myself? I couldn't care less about GPS, power windows, automatic transmission, Blackberry and all the tacky gadgets they put on cars these days. I just want to drive something that I can understand. — Malia

Tom:YOU'D like to look under the hood and actually know what's going on? So would WE!

Ray:I don't know how old you are, Malia, but I remember when televisions were pretty simple. And when something went wrong that wouldn't respond to a fist on the side of the box, you could take the back off the TV, remove the tubes, take them down to the repair shop and put them in a "tube tester."

Tom:If one of the tubes was bad, you'd buy a new one for a few bucks, put them all back in, turn on the TV and voila! You'd be watching "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." again in no time.

Ray:I wouldn't even consider taking the back off my TV now. And I guess that's a loss for humanity. But you know what? TVs are 1,000 times better today than they were 50 years ago. They almost never break now, they download movies, they display things in 3-D. Their pictures are brighter, sharper and more realistic, yet the sets are more energy-efficient.

Tom:And the same is true of cars. They're 1,000 times more complex, but they're also 1,000 times better and more reliable than they used to be.

Ray:And much of that is attributable to the complicated technology that you and I can't even begin to fix anymore. So it's a trade-off, but it's a trade-off that most of us are happy to make.

Tom:Because now our cars pollute a fraction as much, they're more powerful, some of them go much farther on a gallon of gasoline (or a kilowatt of lithium-ion battery power), they're safer, more comfortable, they last longer and, perhaps most importantly, they start pretty much every day. A lot of people forget what it was like to turn the key and pray whenever it was cold and rainy out.

Ray:And cars now routinely go 100,000 miles without needing any major repairs. In the old days, if you nursed a car to 100,000 miles, it was a cause for a party.

Tom:So, in order to get something that you can look under the hood of and easily tinker with yourself, you have to be willing to drive an unsafe, unreliable, pollution-belching rust bucket.

Ray:Which is what my brother drives. In fact, you can go car shopping on his front lawn, Malia. You'll have a bunch of heaps that won't start to choose from.

Tom:You really have to go back to the 1970s or earlier to go "pre-computer." If you get a car of that vintage, you'll be able to open the hood and recognize all the parts. That's one thing I really like about my old cars.

I have a 1998 Ford Explorer. A few days ago, I had the left turn signal on and suddenly, it just stopped blinking. Then a very faint, almost imperceptible wisp of smoke came out of the steering column. I think I smelled a burnt-toast odor. The smoke and odor disappeared in about a second, leaving me wondering if I had imagined it all. A while later, the turn signal started working again. Am I going to end up being one of those people stranded on the side of the highway watching their car go up in flames? Please help! My boyfriend insists that this is serious. But for me, it's really easy to ignore the problem (if it IS a problem), because it's working fine again now. — Judy

TOM: Well, just to be on the safe side, I wouldn't wear any flammable fabrics for a while. And avoid using hairspray before getting into the car.

RAY: It's potentially dangerous, Judy. The smoke is coming from your multifunction switch, which is the switch operated by your turn-signal stalk. It often controls several things, like the windshield wipers and, in some cars, the headlights and high beams, too.

TOM: Yours is arcing. When the two metal contacts of the switch no longer make firm contact — because they're corroded or they're worn down — the electricity will "jump" across the connection in the form of a spark.

RAY: And we all know that where there's spark, there's — uh, sometimes fire, eventually. So, WILL your car definitely turn into a rolling barbecue grill? No. But CAN it, based on this problem? Yes. Definitely.

TOM: Plus, you know what the problem is, and you know what the solution is — a new multifunction switch for a couple of hundred bucks from the dealer, or probably less from an independent shop. So why not just be safe and take care of it, instead of having to drive with one hand on the wheel and one hand always on a venti iced coffee, which you can use to douse any sudden flames?

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It's NEVER cheaper in the long run to buy a new car. Want proof? Order Tom and Ray's pamphlet "How to Buy a Great Used Car: Secrets Only Your Mechanic Knows." Send $4.75 (check or money order) to Used Car, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.